Culture Change Best Practices:

Community Life

Community Life is a relatively new area of interest in Culture Change. This
area focuses on what we historically have thought of as “Activities” or “Therapeutic
Recreation.” The goal behind Community Life is to move away from a 10
am and 2 pm structured activities focus, to that of a spontaneous, community-based
style that meets individual resident needs in a way that is more personal and
life-affirming.

A good place to start looking at this area of interest is
to examine the current medical model activities calendar. At first glance,
in many homes, it would appear as though residents only are interested in religious
activities or Bingo. With a 10 am and 2 pm approach to activities, what is
available for residents at 6 am? 10 pm? What is happening in the home on the
weekend?

In the past, activities were offered in large group settings at
two major time periods during the day because they were offered around two
major nursing home systems—the medication pass and dining. The only times
left to facilitate a large group activity were in the spots in-between med
pass and breakfast, lunch or dinner.

The Community Life approach asks nursing
home professionals to stop thinking of activities in the terms of large scale
group offerings at rigid times during the day. Rather, Community Life asks
us to break down activity offerings into smaller, more manageable and more
spontaneous “happenings.”

Larger scale activities may still be
offered, but in a truly culturally-changed home, primary care nursing assistants
are offered the opportunity to sit down with the “neighbors” that
they care for and share a cup of coffee, play with the neighborhood cat, or
just
share
stories about children. In this aspect, Community Life becomes everyone’s
responsibility.